1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to recording apparatuses such as an ink jet printer and recording methods.
2. Related Art
Ink jet printers that eject ink through nozzles of a recording head to perform printing on a recording medium such as paper have been known as a type of recording apparatus. Among these printers, there is provided a printer in which printing is performed while roll paper being unrolled and transported. Since roll paper has a tendency to curve persistently in general, the leading edge portion thereof is likely to curl. Then, if the leading edge portion of such roll paper curls, a portion of the roll paper that is opposed to a recording head may rise upward. As a result, there has been a problem in that the roll paper makes contact with the recording head and gets dirty with ink.
In order to solve such problem, there have been proposed printers such that a step member is provided downstream of a platen arranged on a roll paper transport path and its position is lower in height than that of the upper surface of the platen (for example, JP-A-2006-224506). That is, the printer described in JP-A-2006-224506 suppresses roll paper placed on a platen from rising upward by forwarding a curling leading edge portion of the roll paper in advance to a step member that is positioned lower than the upper surface of the platen.
The printer described in JP-A-2006-224506 transports the leading edge portion of roll paper to the step member provided downstream of the platen regardless of the amount of curling of the leading edge portion of roll paper at the time of printing. In other words, an amount of protrusion of the leading edge portion of roll paper to the downstream side from the platen is always constant whether the amount of curling of the leading edge portion of roll paper is large or small. Accordingly, in the case where the amount of curling of the leading edge portion of roll paper is smaller, there has been a problem in that the roll paper is wastefully consumed because the extra amount of roll paper is unnecessarily transported.